


Childish

by jedusaur



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-20
Updated: 2010-05-20
Packaged: 2017-10-22 02:53:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedusaur/pseuds/jedusaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Shindou's daughter is four and a half, Touya discovers her alone in the game room at the Ki'in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Childish

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://blind-go.livejournal.com/profile)[**blind_go**](http://blind-go.livejournal.com/) , round 9.

Considering Shindou's reckless enthusiasm on the Go board, it comes as no surprise to Touya when his hormones kick into gear around age seventeen and he turns into a bit of a slut. Nor does Touya faint with shock when, two years later, Shindou accidentally gets a girl pregnant. Least surprising of all, though entertaining, is the fact that this happened between halves of an official pro game, with that day's opponent.

The female in question is Sato Katsumi, an attractive seven-dan who proceeded to wipe the board with Shindou that afternoon while his sperm jostled for admittance to her fallopian tubes. This, Waya observes dryly in the lunch room, is the closest Shindou has ever gotten to romance.

Touya expects Shindou to either drop to one knee in a fit of passion or run away; he does neither. He asks her if she's keeping the baby. When she says yes, he smiles brightly, buys her a decaffeinated soda from the vending machine (because he thinks he heard somewhere that caffeine is bad for babies), and offers to play her while she's in labor to distract her from the pain. This, Katsumi tells Waya, is more romantic than any bouquet she's ever received.

The baby is a girl, and they name her Mieko. Shindou moves in with Katsumi to help take care of her. He's a much better father than Touya ever expected him to be. Touya has never liked small children much, but he admits that Mieko seems to be fairly well-behaved for her age, and Katsumi is doing an admirable job of putting up with Shindou.

When Shindou's daughter is four and a half, Touya discovers her alone in the game room at the Ki'in, studiously arranging a line of white stones on a goban. "Is your father here?" he asks, because of her parents, Shindou is infinitely more likely to leave his offspring playing with institute property by herself. Mieko shakes her head and adds another stone to the line.

"He's playing a title game in Hiroshima," says Waya from the doorway. "I'm surprised you didn't know that. Katsumi has a regular shidougo gig this afternoon, so they asked me to babysit."

It's the first time Touya can remember Waya speaking to him normally, without sharp undertones of hostility. Waya has always struck Touya as very similar to Shindou, but less oblivious. Whereas Shindou blithely disregards Touya's feelings simply because it never crosses his mind that he might have any, Waya chooses his words for maximum barb.

There's no barb today, though. Perhaps the presence of the child is softening Waya's demeanor.

"I did know about Shindou's game," says Touya. "I was just confused to find Mieko here."

"Katsumi's picking her up from my apartment later." Waya squats by the board. "Hey, kiddo, let's go. Put away those stones and we'll get you candy or some crap on the way out." He turns to Touya. "Want to come along?"

Touya doesn't particularly wish to spend the afternoon in the company of a four-year-old, but this new civility intrigues him, and his mistrust of Waya's childcare qualifications is deep enough to convince him to accompany them if only for Mieko's sake. He takes immediate custody of the bag of chocolates Waya obtains in the downstairs gift shop and gives her only one.

"Don't run off with those," Waya says sternly. "If she doesn't eat them, they're mine."

Touya reassures him that he has no intention of pilfering the sweets, and spends the subway ride closely monitoring the proximity of Mieko's sugar-slimy fingers to his favorite lavender suit jacket.

At Waya's apartment, Waya and Mieko immediately dive into some sort of energetic game involving what sound like cats and rocket ships. Possibly cats in rocket ships. Or, if the noises Waya is making are accurate, rocket ships in cats. Touya sits on the couch and watches awkwardly until Mieko ducks behind his legs, sticks her head up between his ankles, and says, "Meow?"

"Meow," Touya confirms gravely. She squeals and runs over to Waya, who channels an impressive inner jet engine, sending her careening back to Touya's feet. Touya is almost beginning to enjoy himself when she crashes into a table and lets loose a holler that puts Waya's jet engine to shame.

Touya kneels and examines her. The corner of the table seems to have hit her shoulder, which looks like it's going to bruise, but the death grip she exerts on his tie indicates no nerve damage. Nonetheless, the screaming is not stopping.

"Go stones," says Touya.

"What?" yells Waya.

"Go stones! She was playing with them earlier, maybe they'll calm her down!"

Waya speedily fetches a goke and shoves it at her. She doesn't stop wailing, but her tone starts sounding more forced, and Touya suspects her of willful deception as to the extent of injuries sustained. He extricates his tie from her grasp, finds a goban, and begins setting out one of the many games he's committed to memory. As he predicted, she quickly falls silent and wriggles over to investigate.

Touya stops laying down stones and offers one to her, wondering if she knows how to play. She places it lopsidedly next to a stone in atari and picks up her prisoner. So she knows that much, at least. "That wasn't necessary," Touya explains. "That stone was already dead. You're just taking territory away from yourself." He lays down another stone. "This is what white should do."

Mieko, ignoring him, places another stone in atari and captures it. Resigned, Touya captures one of hers. She gets him in a ko and begins gleefully switching out black and white stones. "You can't do that," he admonishes her.

Waya shakes his head. "You're trying to teach her to actually play?"

"I was stronger than she is when I was her age," Touya says.

Waya snorts. "I hope her parents don't pressure her like your dad pressured you. That kind of a childhood has got to suck."

The doorbell buzzes, which is a good thing, because Touya is about to lose his temper in front of Mieko. It's her mother, here to retrieve her. Katsumi greets Touya, thanks Waya, and attempts to pry her daughter away from the goban. It takes a while, but she eventually succeeds and departs. Mieko grins over her shoulder on the way out, war wound forgotten.

Waya collapses on the floor next to Touya. "Hand over that candy," he commands.

Touya fishes the bag out of his pocket and complies. Waya pops three of the chocolates into his mouth and lies on his back next to the goban, chewing with his eyes closed. "We should have given her these when she started screeching," he mumbles through his mouthful. "I totally forgot about them."

"My father never pressured me," says Touya. Waya opens his eyes and sits up. "I learned to play Go because I grew up surrounded by those who loved it, and they showed me how much it could mean. No one forced me to play. I wanted to. My world has always been the world of Go, and I have always been happy there. I'm grateful to have found something to care about so early in my life."

Waya is looking at him intently. Touya realizes, suddenly, what's just happened. "If you were curious about my childhood, you could have asked, instead of baiting me with cruel comments."

Waya's gaze drops.

"What was yours like?" asks Touya.

He shrugs. "Normal. I had friends, I read manga, I played baseball. I didn't learn to play Go until I was eight. I didn't have that total immersion. I've always had to work hard to be good. It's easy for you to spend hours studying instead of just giving up and watching TV, because Go is all you've ever known. It's not easy for me. Go isn't my default state of being." Waya picks up the stones Mieko put on the goban, restoring the game Touya had been laying out.

"Is that why you've always been so unkind to me? You feel like I had an advantage over you?"

Waya places a white stone. "Maybe. No." He looks up. "No, it wasn't that you had an advantage. God, Shindou had an advantage, if you count utter insane genius an advantage, and he's one of my best friends. It was that none of us lowly insei mattered to you. We didn't even register. You just assumed that you were better than us. I mean, you _were_. So was Shindou. But he never took that for granted like you did."

"That's not true," says Touya. "Every one of my opponents matters." He plays a black stone, still following the mental kifu.

"What about your first opponent in the pro exam?" Waya laughs shortly and plays another stone. "I don't suppose you remember that far back. You didn't even show up on the first day. You were that confident you could beat us all."

Touya shakes his head. "Some opponents matter more than others. The person I played instead of going to the pro exam that day... he mattered very much to me." Waya looks like he's going to start asking questions, so Touya quickly presses, "Why did you think treating me badly would make me care about you?"

"At least you know who I am now, don't you?" Waya places a stone, and Touya realizes that he's also following the kifu. It's the Shinshodan Series match between Shindou and Touya's father. Waya must have gone over the strange match enough times to commit it to memory, as Touya had.

"I do know who you are," Touya says quietly. "But I would also know you if you had introduced yourself and asked me for a game. I would know you better, and more favorably, and you would have spared yourself years of resentment."

"You're still an arrogant bastard," says Waya, and kisses him. The kiss is firm and brief, barely giving Touya time to wonder what's going on before Waya's lips are gone.

It takes Touya a moment to gather his thoughts. "You really do want to matter to me, don't you?" he says finally.

"Does anything faze you?" demands Waya. "Anything at all? If I pulled out a chainsaw and hacked off your arm, would you even blink?"

"I would be very upset. I like this jacket."

"Clothes," says Waya despairingly. "Clothes and Shindou winning. These are the things that raise Touya Akira's heart rate."

Touya shouldn't, he knows he shouldn't. "If you're aiming to raise my heart rate, you're going to have to do better than a two-second kiss."

A grin spreads slowly across Waya's face, and he does better.

Later, just before they have sex, Touya checks three times to make sure the condom is on properly. Waya, amused, says, "You do realize that we're men, right? What happened to Katsumi cannot happen to us."

"I am not," says Touya, "taking any chances."


End file.
